CDEMA ‘learned’ Hurricane Melissa lessons

The Caribbean’s decade-old disaster management blueprint is being overhauled, driven by the destructive lessons of Hurricane Melissa, the growing complexity of regional hazards, and a shrinking international funding base — with officials warning that the region can no longer afford to plan for recovery after disaster strikes.

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency’s (CDEMA) 20 participating states spent the past two days reviewing and updating the Comprehensive Disaster Management Strategy during a regional consultation workshop held at the Accra Beach Hotel & Spa.

CDEMA executive director Elizabeth Riley told Barbados TODAY that the strategy, first introduced in 2014, must now adapt to a rapidly changing regional and global environment.

“We recognise that since the start of this iteration of the strategy in 2014, there have been a lot of changes,” she said. “These changes have been related to the hazards themselves, which have become a lot more complex, but also related to the geopolitical environment, which has become a lot more challenging.”

Climate change has intensified the frequency and severity of disasters across the Caribbean, while funding to support disaster management programmes has shrunk, Riley said.

Among the emerging concerns now being integrated into regional planning is human displacement caused by disasters. Riley pointed to the impact of Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, where “thousands of persons were displaced”, as well as the La Soufrière volcanic eruption in St Vincent in 2021, which displaced about 20 000 people.

“This is a feature we’re seeing a lot more frequently, and we’re discussing how do we integrate these types of issues now into our planning,” she said.

The workshop also focused heavily on improving disaster recovery systems, with Riley stressing the need for countries to prepare recovery plans before disasters occur rather than after.

“We’re discussing modalities by which we can better assist countries to prepare for the recovery processes ahead of time and ensuring that that is treated not after the actual disaster takes place.”

Hurricane Melissa provided critical lessons for regional coordination and response systems, the CDEMA head said. Following the storm, the agency convened a regional after-action review in March to assess how the response mechanism performed.

Experts examined how to strengthen coordination with new international partners operating in the region and improve logistics support during emergencies.

She also highlighted the first activation of the CDEMA–World Food Programme logistics hub, launched in Barbados last year, during the Melissa response.

“We reviewed how the operations of that hub went forward, the timeliness of the support, and the type of logistics support provided,” Riley said.

Looking ahead to the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, Riley urged the public to tune in to the region’s annual pre-hurricane season press conference on Thursday, May 28 at 10 am – four days before the June 1 start – when officials will discuss the latest seasonal forecasts and preparedness measures.

 

(SB)